MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Deuce McBride has played his last game in a West Virginia uniform and has decided to keep his name in the 2021 NBA Draft.
“Yeah, he’s staying in,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “He called me late (Friday) night and told me he’s staying in the draft.”
McBride led the Mountaineers in scoring last season at 15.9 points per game and he shot 41.4% from 3-point range while dishing out 140 assists over 29 games.
The Mountaineers fell to Syracuse in the second round of the NCAA tournament to end last season.
Since then, both McBride and forward Derek Culver have announced their intentions on turning pro and forgoing their remaining college eligibility.
“We support Deuce and Derek in their decisions and, obviously, we want both of them to have success,” Huggins said. “Any player who has played for me and gone through this process, I’ve wanted them all to have the most success they could have.”
McBride was invited to last month’s NBA Combine in Chicago and performed well in front of NBA scouts and general managers.
McBride also compared favorably in most of his physical measurements at the combine.
McBride’s standing vertical leap was measured at 31 inches, fourth highest among point guards. He completed the lane agility drill in 11.08 seconds, fifth highest among point guards.
His wingspan was just under 6-foot-9 and his hand width was measured at 9.5 inches, tops among all point guards at the combine.
Heading into the combine, McBride was projected as an early second-round pick, but had moved up into the late first round by many projections following the combine.
Huggins said he wasn’t sure if any team had officially told McBride they would take him in the first round.
“I don’t know if anyone really knows for sure or where Deuce may go,” Huggins said. “I don’t know of any teams that will come out and say something like that.”
If picked in the first round, McBride would be guaranteed a contract for two years.
According to the NBA salary scale, McBride could earn at least $3.3 million over those two years as a late first-round selection.
If McBride were to fall out of the first round, he would not have a guaranteed contract and would have to make the team at training camp.
Culver, meanwhile, is not projected to be picked, but announced in April he was turning pro regardless if he’s selected in the draft or not.
Since the end of last season, Huggins believed losing both players early was a possibility and recruited accordingly.
He signed two shot-blocking forwards in Pauly Paulicap and Dimon Carrigan and an additional point guard in Malik Curry.
“If you look at it, we’ve lost two all-Big 12 first-team players and potentially two All-Americans,” Huggins said. “We tried to prepare for virtually everything. I think we’re as well-equipped as we possibly could be, but it’s hard to replace the experience that we’ve lost. I think we did as good a job as we could.”
If McBride is picked in the first round, he would be the Mountaineers’ seventh all-time first-rounder and the first since Joe Alexander in 2008.
The 2021 NBA Draft is scheduled for July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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